TexDec '09

Decathlon #3 for 2009 turned out to be rather eventful, as always.


Texas offers a great facility, great competition, and great comradery. On the other hand, it also offers high temps, changing winds, and nasty humidity... all foreigners to a spoiled (and grateful) So.Cal. athlete.

400m dash (in red)

I came into this meet looking for a strong personal best, as practices have been looking better than ever before in my life. As any decathlete will tell you though, what you see in practice offers no promise to what may actually go down during the 12 hours of competition.

My running events proved once again to be my strong-points: 2nd in the 100m, 1st in the 400m, and 1st in the 1500m. My hurdles have seen a noticeable improvement from last year, but I still haven't shaved off the extra half second I expect from myself. I ended up matching my p.r. to the 100th of a second for the 3rd time in a row.

(They offered us the "every-other-lane" option, so as not to clobber each other. We gladly obliged.)

High jump went well in comparison to previous meets this year. Why, oh why, can this white man not jump? I came SoOo close to clearing a new dec. p.r., as seen in the footage below...

Just another 2-3 inches, and I can check this event off the "weakness" list. Bar is set at 6'2" and was brushed off by my hamstring. (Avg. world class decathletes jump mid 6's.)

Moving on...

I was back this year for some pole vault redemption after a bitter no-height last year during what was shaping up to be my best decathlon ever. I still struggled all day to get my step dialed in at this venue, but at least I was turning up jumps. All was well, with plenty of clearances, until the bar went up to 15' 4". Something cranked on my jumping knee (patella tendon) during take-off of my last jump and brought me to the ground. I passed my final attempts and went limping to the training room.

(Once again, the cover screen chooses to expose my top-end inadequacies :)

I chose to continue the competition, as this may or may not be my last opportunity for the year. Unfortunately, a nightmarish day in discus (two fouls and one shank), and a now throbbing knee, robbed me of the opportunity to set a new personal best score. I went on to throw a cautious 170' in javelin and then go test the waters for running a mile.

Warmups were painful, and I stopped after 80m of jogging. I decided to save the pain for the race. As it turned out, jogging slow hurt worse than running fast, and I spent most of the race without any serious knee pain. I went on to run 4:40, which was slower than budgeted, but beggars can't be choosers. I was just happy to finish the decathlon in one (messy) piece.

In other news, my training partner Andrew Hall beasted a p.r. in javelin (225') and was just a few feet short of qualifying for USA's (231') as an open event. An achilles problem that has been pestering him for weeks was unwilling to leave him alone for the rest of the decathlon, causing him to pass on several events. Andrew ended up having lifetime bests this year in the 100m, shot put, the 400m, the 110m hurdles, pole vault, and javelin, as well as his overall decathlon score. Not too shabby, eh? He has one more opportunity to qualify in javelin (tomorrow). We're hoping he sticks a good one!

As far as the rest of the season is concerned, we are weighing our options. I definitely don't feel done. Other than my tendon, my body feels great and my muscles are firing well. I am hungry to get out and hit a full decathlon without a twist of tragedy. It's kinda been "one of those years", but I'd like to finish it up on a positive note.

Thanks for tuning in. (And thanks for all the www.facebook.com/jdcollins support throughout the live updates!)